And away the Padres go again on one of those trips where you think the itinerary was designed by somebody with a warped sense of geography, to say nothing of "natural rivalries." They start with three games against the Philadelphia Phillies, continue with three against the New York Mets and wrap it up with only two games against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field.

For what it’s worth, there may be some encouragement for the Padres in the records of the two NL East Division teams they’ll encounter this week. In particular, even with the sort of starpower that remains in the forms of Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Cole Hamels, the Philadelphia Phillies have turned into a real mess.

"That's not big-league baseball what we've been doing at home," bench coach Larry Bowa said when the Phillies dropped to 12-19 at Citizens Bank Park last week. " That's not big-league baseball."

Monday represents the Phils' first day off in three weeks -- during which they went 6-14 -- and they're starting a run of 21 games in 20 days Tuesday. This will sound familiar to those who follow the oft-blanked Padres, but Philadelphia has been shut out nine times this season, eight in their last 31 games, and lost seven of their last eight games to sink deeper into last place behind the Mets.

Said Rollins, "It’s getting out of control now.”

Speaking of control: There’s lots of talk about Rollins being trade bait, but he has said he won’t allow a deal to anybody until he passes Mike Schmidt as the all-time Phillies hits leader. A hit Sunday left him four behind Schmidt's total of 2,2234, so Rollins could set the record with a decent couple games against the Padres.